City's subways soon to ring with sound of cell phones

July 07, 2006|By Jon Van, Tribune staff reporter

A test of your outlook on technology and life. Those 15 minutes you are underground on the CTA and can't get a mobile phone signal: agony or ecstasy?

For all who find it unbearable to be out of touch, a Chicago-based wireless phone firm has agreed to pay nearly $3 million to become the first carrier to offer mobile phone service that operates in the city's subways.

U.S. Cellular Corp. is betting there is a marketing edge in selling phone service that will work during those moments riders get trapped in the downtown tunnels waiting for the next train to arrive or want to send a text message after the Red Line train descends underground south of the Fullerton elevated train stop. "We want our customers' phones to work wherever they go," said Ken Borner, senior director of network operations for U.S. Cellular. He said the service would begin this summer after testing is completed.

The Chicago Transit Authority has offered all wireless carriers access to its tunnels, but only U.S. Cellular has come forward with cash--it will pay the CTA $2.9 million for a 10-year lease. Representatives from Cingular, Verizon Wireless and Sprint/Nextel said their firms are studying the CTA's offer, but they've made no decision to participate.

A sampling of customers taking the Red Line Thursday suggested many welcome the opportunity.

"I think it's good," said Ben Brock, a young man from the Washington area who is visiting Chicago this summer. "I enjoy listening to other people's conversations, especially the sexy gossip."

Richard Johnson, a South Side resident, said he would look forward to calling his family and his employer when he's running late.

"You know how the CTA is," Johnson said. "You can be sitting still in the train for long periods. Then they run the train express, so you pass your stop."

Victor Soohoo of Oak Park said "it's probably good because there could be a holdup or anything might happen where you'd need to use a phone."

But Penelope DeCou of Lincoln Square said she thinks cell phone use in the subways is just bad.

"It's a confined space, and I don't need to listen to other people's conversations," she said. "It might be OK for people waiting in the station, but having to wait 10 minutes before they make a call might be good for them, help them break their addiction."

The 22 miles of subway track for the CTA's Red and Blue Lines are only 10 percent of the system, which has 222 miles of track in all.

Just as authorities are mulling whether to allow cell phone conversations on airplanes in flight, CTA officials did discuss whether it would be more helpful than annoying to enable wireless communications for its passengers underground.

"We decided that safety and security considerations for our customers outweighed the annoyance factor," said John Flynn, CTA vice president for technology management.

Flynn said that customers already use cell phones on trains that operate above ground, and the CTA has begun playing automated announcements urging cell phone users to be mindful of other passengers.

"There's an ambient noise problem on trains traveling underground," said Flynn. "I'm not sure that a lot of people will make a lot of calls while riding, but while they're in the station waiting for a train, many want to use their phones."

U.S. Cellular, a regional carrier that has built a marketing effort to identify itself as Chicago's hometown wireless company, has attached its radio-cell-site equipment to the CTA's underground antenna infrastructure and is working to fine tune the system, said Borner.

"We have engineers riding the trains and using phones to look for problems," he said.

This is the company's first experience with subway operations, he said, and many adjustments must be made to ensure that customers will get good service. One engineering problem involves the fact that when a customer enters the subway, there's no way to predict where he may emerge.

"He could pop up anywhere," Borner said. "Our system is configured so that each cell site knows its neighbors and is ready to hand off calls with neighboring sites only."

But the single underground site will have neighbor sites in a wide area around the city, so the entire system must be adjusted to reflect that, Borner said.

It's taken years for Chicago's subway to accommodate cell phone users. In 2001 the CTA awarded a concession to Andrew Corp., the Westchester-based telecom infrastructure firm, to build a subway antenna system.

At the time, no cell phone company was interested in making its service available in the subways. The CTA upgraded its essential-services radio system to improve communications with train operators and to enable fire and police who entered the subway to have full wireless communications.

The CTA also provided cell phone infrastructure as part of the upgrade in hopes that carriers eventually would use it, said Flynn.